VA Loan rental/ house hack

[James Cameraon]

Hello everyone..

So I currently have a home under VA loan that I've owned for 4years. My wife and I are looking into purchasing a new construction home in our area also using the VA when the builder made us an offer that we would like some advice on.

We purchase the model home with VA loan and they pay the mortgage to continue to use as the model for 18months.. this would mean we can't move in.. they are proposing that we "move in" to the garage.. would that technically be a house hack? Renting the house to the builders while we live in the garage? All utilities would be under my name, proper insurance placed and I would change DMV and to the new address while we wait also, so I don't see any red flags coming from this.. our current home is about 3 blocks away also and will become a rental when we are able to move, so insurance would be change to rental and place on new house as primary as soon as escrow closes? On paper everything would look legit except we'd be primarily living in the old house and visiting the new one regularly to pick up mail. Is this a deal you would take? Potentially buy a house 18months from now at today's price with mortgage paid down? Has anyone had experience with something even close to this?